While checking Amazon for something else entirely, I saw that the welcome page was promoting a book [currently ranked 6th in sales at Amazon] on “spiritual healing” by a certain Caroline Myss, Ph.D. I love how they always put ‘Ph.D.’ after their name; whenever I see that, I KNOW the book is crap. My curiosity piqued, I clicked on the book to see what junk was contained inside, and it was pretty bad [don’t take my word for it, go and see for yourself]. So I went on over to Myss.com to find out what “Dr.” Myss got her doctorate in. It says on her bio page that she earned a Ph.D. in “Energy Medicine” from Greenwich University, an “autonomous accredited university.” I’d never heard of Greenwich University, and I had no idea how “Energy Medicine” could be taught at an “accredited university.” A little research was in order.

Greenwich University is a correspondence school rechartered on Norfolk Island, a small island off the eastern coast of Australia. A territory of Australia, Norfolk Island was (re)discovered in 1774 by Captain James Cook and shortly after established as a remote secondary punishment location. In 1788 the first shipment of British convicts arrived; prisoners were transferred from Norfolk to Tasmania (Van Diemen’s land) as early as 1806, but Norfolk remained a penal colony until 1814. In 1856, several descendants of the mutineers of Captain Bligh’s HMS Bounty sailed from Pitcairn Island to Norfolk. Today, some 35% of the 1800 permanent residents of Norfolk Island trace their ancestry to the mutineers of the Bounty. [source: Norfolk Island official website]

I went to the “Energy Medicine” page at Greenwich University and found the following: “Drs. Caroline M. Myss and C. Norman Shealy began this Greenwich University graduate program in Energy Medicine, which has now, after a decade of growth, been expanded into the College of Energy Medicine.” Yes, you read that correctly. Caroline Myss, Ph.D., created a department at a correspondence school on a remote island to grant herself a degree in “Energy Medicine” to lend credibility to her writings.

Greenwich University operates under a model of “external degree studies, independent study and distance learning.” It may not qualify as a traditional “diploma mill,” but it doesn’t seem to be far off. Lest I question the school’s credibility unfairly, I looked into its “accreditation.” The Accreditation & Recognition page states that the school was “established on Norfolk Island under its own Act of Parliament, the Greenwich University Act 1998.” [One item must immediately be cleared up: it says the school was established in 1998, but the Energy Medicine page says it has been around for a decade. The school was actually started in 1972 in St. Louis, MO, USA. In 1994, it incorporated in Norfolk Island, and actually moved there in 1998.] I wanted to know what accreditation agency would certify a school with offerings in “Energy Medicine,” so I sent an anonymous email to the Information Officer:

To : greenwich@university.edu.nf

Hi, I saw your website on the internet and was curious about some of your
programs. But I wanted to ask a simple question first: your site says that
“Greenwich is an autonomous accredited university.” I was just wondering
what agency accredited your university? And what does it mean to be
“autonomous accredited”?
Thanks for your help. I liked your website!
*****

I received the following reply:

From : “Office of the Bursar” <office@university.edu.nf>

Dear *****
Thank you for your e-mail regarding Greenwich University. Both words have
their common English (British) meaning.
Autonomous – independent, self – sufficient, self – governing
Accredited – official, endorsed, certified
As is the case with all other Australian Universities, Greenwich
Universities was established by an act of parliament, in our case the
Greenwich university Act 1998.
The words are those chosen by our legislators, they are the only ones who
can give accreditation to a university. Once they accredit a university
through an Act of Parliament, as a rule the legislators don’t interfere in
the university governance, hence the word autonomous.

Best regards,

Jack Marges
Greenwich University

One problem with this response is that it claims “accreditation” from an act of Parliament [that’s Norfolk Island’s Parliament, by the way, a body of nine people]. As it is used in the United States, the word “accreditation” implies some “form of independent review of educational programs for the purpose of helping to establish that the learning offered is of a uniform and sound quality.” In the US there are six regional accreditation agencies that evaluate secondary and post-secondary schools for educational soundness and quality. In addition, several professional and academic organizations offer accreditation evaluations to specific academic departments and programs. When an American university or academic department claims accreditation from some agency or professional organization, it is stating that its practices have been evaluated and approved by an independent agency. Greenwich University was “accredited” by an act of Parliament, which carries with it no such claim to quality control. Greenwich University’s “accreditation” gives no assurance of educational quality. To see this, one need only observe that Caroline Myss, Ph.D. created her own department to grant herself a degree in “Energy Medicine.”

…

At least Alex Chiu doesn’t bother trying to convince people he’s not insane.

NP: Blossom [Blümchen], Rollercoaster